


Stealing Kisses in the Aftermath

by Crack_Pair_King



Series: Stealing Kisses [3]
Category: Persona 5, Persona Series
Genre: F/F, F/M, Implied Sexual Content, Multi, Polyamory, Polythieves (Persona 5), Post-Canon, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-21
Updated: 2019-05-21
Packaged: 2020-03-09 01:47:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,633
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18907015
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crack_Pair_King/pseuds/Crack_Pair_King
Summary: Haru's life has been challenging as of late, and left her sleeping on far too many a date.  So when she wakes up a bit early, craving affection and with a house full of thieves, Haru goes hunting for kisses.





	Stealing Kisses in the Aftermath

**Author's Note:**

> So I have the locations for the remaining fics in this set planned out. The question will be which one to write next.
> 
> For anyone who's curious, I'm integrating a few of my own headcannons regarding Persona-User Problems. I'm playing with writing a longer fic in the future, and these headcannons would see a great deal more use there.
> 
> So if you have thoughts, opinions, likes or dislikes regarding those elements in particular, let me know.

Haru was the one who really stepped up the game. In a way as sweet, and aggressive, as it was effective.

All that surprised the thieves about the event was the initiative.

_________

Haru woke a little earlier than usual, the morning after their first official video game night.

She had no doubt they would repeat the event. The previous evening had been delightful for all involved.

Not just because of Futaba's little affection caper, but because they had been together. As sleep slipped further away from her mind, Haru realized they were not together.

Her bed was comfortable and warm and, she was almost certain, big enough for the group to squeeze into with a little ingenuity. Yet Haru found herself alone. Not unheard of by any means, but certainly not expected.

Haru went through her morning ablutions in a considering mood.

By the end, she had reached a decision, and prepared to action it.

__________

Mona-chan found Haru before she found the rest of the group. Not necessarily surprising, as Morgana slept like a cat: frequently and for short bursts. Haru bent down and scritched the attendant behind his ears.

Morgana purred and pushed into the action.

"How are you feeling today, Mona-chan?"

Haru thought she'd done an admirable job keeping her tone level. But either she hadn't done as well as she thought, or Morgana's navigator senses told him something of what she had planned. Either way, he shot Haru a look of amused exasperation.

"I really don't get it. Chin scratches are better if you ask me."

Haru giggled, and then moved her hand to fulfill the shameless request.

Morgana's purring intensified. Finally, he spoke again.

"It's fine, I guess. I'm feeling like lying in the gardens anyways."

"We'll keep out of your way." Haru said solemnly. She made a mental note to send a maid out to him with fresh fish and water.

Morgana eventually broke away from the scratching to find a sunbeam, and left Haru to find her first mark.

__________

Haru found Yusuke first.

Fortunately, she also found him before the maids.

Haru found the image of Yusuke asleep in the middle of her father's art gallery, hands covered in color and a drawing pad spattered in the imagery of his mind, frankly adorable. The maids would likely focus on the splattered array of paint that surrounded him.

Curious, and well aware of her friends' natures, Haru leaned down and examined the paint. Time and experience with Yusuke had given her, given them all, some insight into the different types of paint. The subtle tells that spoke to Yusuke as clearly as conversation. Haru wasn't as good at spotting the differences as Futaba, Ann, or Ren, but she knew what this was.

Watercolors, and an easily cleaned version at that. Something told Haru it was the only type of paint Yusuke had with him. The only one he'd been willing to risk in this house.

While they all knew it was her residence, not her home, it was Yusuke who seemed most keenly aware of it. He'd shown as much the previous night, before he'd disappeared and exhaustion began to take them all one by one.

Comfortably ensconced on a 2-seater the night before, and hands recently freed of a controller, Yusuke had let his eyes scan over the room as he spoke.

"This house's aesthetic..." His eyes scanned a moment longer, before coming around at last to meet Haru's own. "Is a dismal setting for you. Your roots truly cannot find purchase here, can they?"

She'd shaken her head. So used to guarding her emotions, it took a second to remember that she didn't have to here. Not anymore. She'd let the mask drop, and Yusuke nodded in satisfaction as he saw the weary resolve fill in the gaps left in her expression.

He'd wrapped her in a gentle hug. Then stiffened.

Concerned, Haru looked up at Yusuke's face, then relaxed. She saw the leashed madness of an idea freshly blooming in Yusuke's eyes. She had smiled and told him her father's art gallery had become wonderfully tranquil since his passing.

Looking down now at the scene of splattered paint, an unconscious Yusuke, and a singular piece of work, Haru couldn't help her smile. Eccentric or not, Yusuke's passion was something she desperately loved. It reminded her of her grandfather in all the best ways.

With that thought in mind, Haru leaned down and plucked a kiss from Yusuke's lips.

__________

Yusuke's drawing caught Haru's eye as she released his lips. It was the splash of pinks and blacks that caught her attention. The colors were so similar to her Noir outfit that she couldn't resist looking closer.

The grumbling sigh almost made Haru laugh and give away the game. Yusuke was a lighter sleeper than most, but he was not fast to wake. Haru didn't intend to rush him. Instead, she looked more fully at Yusuke's latest piece.

It was, to her surprise, a building. Rather, it was recognizable as a building. Proportionally questionable, and Haru was quite certain walls didn't bend at angles like axe cuts. But quite recognizable. The space around it was... something else. An amalgamation of steel gray and more colors than Haru honestly knew how to name.

It reminded her of _Desire and Hope_  in its composition.

As Haru stared at it, she saw something else in the picture. Herself, fighting to find home in a place that was never hers to begin with. And while intellectually she knew it wasn't Yusuke's best piece by any stretch, she also knew she'd commission him for a recreation.

Perhaps in oil paint?

It would be a fitting reminder of this place when the time came to leave.

"Do you like it, Haru?"

If Yusuke was stringing words into sentences, he was awake. Looking over, she saw him rolled onto one side, braced languidly on one elbow. She smiled.

"Could you make it bigger?"

Yusuke's responding smile spoke of warmth and surprised joy.

___________

Haru left the artist to his meditations as she continued her early morning raiding.

She found Futaba. And upon discovery, had to shake her head.

Futaba was asleep underneath the piano that her father had insisted on keeping in the living room. Haru could play, again at his insistence, but hated it. It remained in the house as a show piece. Something for potential buyers to look at and be impressed over.

Haru wasn't entirely sure why Futaba had chosen to sleep under the piano, but had no doubt it was a choice. The girl hadn't just fallen asleep. She'd nested. Haru could just see two of the couch cushions underneath Futaba and her puddle of blankets.

Haru supposed it made sense. Futaba liked her confined spaces, felt more comfortable within them. Haru just wasn't sure why the other girl had camped out under a piano rather than in one of the many bedrooms in the building. Crawling into the space with Futaba, Haru spotted the small black hairs on an off-white blanket. Touching the well-worn depression in the fabric, she could just feel the slight warmth.

Morgana.

Futaba hadn't wanted to confine him to a room he couldn't exit on his own. Haru felt her heart melt all over again for the pint-sized hacker in front of her.

Gently tilting Futaba's head up, Haru leaned in and plucked a kiss from her lips.

____________

"Would you like some help straightening up?" Haru asked as Futaba blinked awake. The girl's violet eyes met Haru's, and Haru was surprised by the humor there.

"Nope. Gonna sleep more. Then ambush someone's ankles."

Haru tilted her head, considering Futaba's current position. Yes, it looked comfortable enough, but she couldn't understand something.

"Why ankles?"

Futaba's cackle was weary. Haru listened, but no, she didn't sound as drained as she had two months ago. Then, the girl had slept for three days and given them all fits.

It sounded like she'd been woken up, in all honesty. Which Haru supposed was fair.

"Because I'm the ankle-biter!" Futaba said, warm humor mixing with growing sleepiness.

Haru nodded slowly. "But aren't ankles bony? At least thighs and calves have muscle."

Futaba's yawn-broken cackling did nothing to alleviate Haru's confusion. But it did assure her the girl was well and happy where she was.

_____________

Haru slipped out of Futaba's little nesting place as the hacker's eyelids slid closed again.

Sliding out her phone, Haru sent a series of messages to the help who worked around the home. Satisfied that Yusuke's mess wouldn't cause serious strife, that Morgana would get his fish, and that Futaba would remain undisturbed in her rest, she set about finding her next quarry.

She found Ryuji.

Turning a corner on the second floor, Haru stumbled as her foot caught Ryuji's ankle. Bracing her hand against one wall, she looked down at the bleach-blond runner. He lay braced against the opposing wall with his legs splayed out. In one hand he held a plastic cup. Glancing in, Haru saw no liquid but a trio of... golf balls?

What had he been up to, and with who?

As soon as the question crossed Haru's mind, she knew the answer. Whatever idea Ryuji had come up with, Ren was surely his partner in crime. Or, she supposed, the idea could have been Ren's. The lack of visible chaos did point away from Ryuji, after all.

Sometimes subtle was vastly overrated. Haru had been raised breathing and speaking subtle. Born and bred to work within the expected. To use the loaded phrase over the landed punch. She loved that Ryuji could simply blast through the expected and get to the damned _point_.

But that same tendency also meant he wasn't always that concerned about collateral damage. So yes, she decided, Ren had probably cooked this little game up. Whatever it was.

Haru would find their fearless leader. But just then she had something else to deal with.

Crouching down, she looked at Ryuji, and bit back a grin.

He looked so adorable sleeping. And would be so mortified to hear her say that.

Tilting up Ryuji's chin, Haru plucked a kiss off his lips.

______________

Haru considered waiting for Ryuji to wake up, but she knew he was a hard sleeper. Still, she wanted to leave him some proof. A quick pop to her room for some lip gloss, and Ryuji's cheek sparkled in the shape of Haru's lips.

Then she slipped off down the corridor, seeking another source of the affection she craved this morning. While she had loved her father, he had been distant in the last years of his life. No, she amended silently, he'd been distant much longer than that.

Astarte, back when she'd first awoken as Milady, had been ruthless in that regard. Their father had stopped being the man Haru once admired long before she recognized it. She had repressed it, and Milady had shot that straight back at Haru. She-

A sharp shake of the head set Haru's hair flicking about. Looking around at walls soaked in experiences of a father lost long before he died, Haru fought to maintain her composure. Glancing back down the hall at the still-sleeping Ryuji, she felt a smile form.

It wasn't a happy expression, exactly, but it spoke of relief. Because Ryuji, too, knew what it meant to lose a father long before he was gone. If Ryujo could take that experience and grow stronger from it, then so could Haru.

After all, he was there to show her how it was done.

_____________

She found Makoto.

The panda t-shirt she'd shown up in last night was still, frankly, adorable. It was also still a tad short on Makoto, flashing glimpses of her abs as she moved. Or rather, it had last night. Now it rode up in the back.

Makoto was laid out on the dining room table. And, to Haru's incredulity, the woman had brought homework. Of course, it didn't look like Makoto had gotten very far before falling asleep mid-question.

"And she says I work too hard?" Haru muttered under her breath before taking a seat next to Makoto.

The pencil had slipped from Makoto's hand during the night, and had rolled halfway down the table. The other woman's cheek was pressed into the paper within her notebook, her nose just shy of tickling the spiral binding.

Her face was relaxed in a way Haru usually only saw when Makoto truly let go in their play together. It was an effort to earn that expression, but so worth it to Haru. To see it without that effort, knowing full well Makoto wouldn't begrudge her?

It felt like a gift.

Haru ran a hand through Makoto's hair, something she knew soothed the anxiety-prone woman. Haru grinned when she saw the relaxation deepen. Much better suited, she decided, to a date night's aftermath.

Tilting Makoto's head just slightly allowed Haru to pluck a kiss off her lips.

_____________

"This is definitely a new thing." The voice was groggy with sleep, but understandable.

Haru tilted her head in a confusion she felt for only a flickering moment. After that it was innocence coating shamelessness. "Didn't we kiss previously? I could have sworn we did. Have I been neglecting to kiss you enough?"

"No, Haru, I-"

"Then I suppose I need to make a better impression then, if you can't remember." Haru let the grin crack her face as Makoto stared at her, plainly unamused at this pre-coffee teasing. Haru considered that, then winced. "Sorry, you did just wake up, after all."

Makoto winced, then shook her head. "No, just not with it yet. Futaba did this yesterday. Ren at the park. You, here and now. Three's a pattern. This is now officially a thing."

Haru nodded slowly, seeing what Makoto was saying. Then she looked at Queen, and it was Noir who spoke. "So what do you intend to do?"

Queen looked back at her for a moment. Then she yawned and smiled, and it was Makoto again. "You'll see. Now, coffee."

"Maids are working on it in the kitchen. I'd do it myself but-"

Makoto laughed. "Go, get on with it. How many left?"

Haru considered, "Ren and Ann."

"Ann's asleep in the media room, I think. Ren, I haven't a clue. He and Ryuji did something with manhunt and golf balls."

Well that answered half of the question. Although it raised at least as many as it answered. How were they combining golf balls and manhunt?

Haru almost asked, but then decided she didn't actually want to know. She ran a hand down Makoto's hair again, smiling as the other woman's eyes closed in pleasure, and then left her to finish waking up.

_____________

Ann was, as Makoto said, unconscious in the media room. However that wasn't what set Haru to giggling. She knew Ann was a heavy sleeper, but this was ridiculous.

Somehow Ann had managed to roll part-way off the couch. She didn't know how Ann slept with her head and shoulders hanging off the couch. Or how Ann was sleeping with the mass of hair that was attempting to smother her.

Then the short, choppy snort of Ann's snoring.

They'd all grown used Ann's sprawling movements as she slept, the short snorting that came too inconsistently for what most people called snoring. As energetic in sleep as she is awake, Haru felt the smile cross her lips with the observation.

She crouched down next to Ann. The girl would claim she was fine when she woke, but Haru wasn't convinced. As gently as she could, she settled Ann back up onto the couch.

A gentle sound that combined a throaty moan and a contented purr.

Haru knew, intellectually, that a sleeping woman couldn't possibly be trying to seduce her. But Ann hardly had to try with anyone in their group by this point. Haru may have been the newest member of this polycule, but she was no more immune to Ann's charms than the others. And that noise had been exquisite.

Then another chopping snort cut through the haze.

Giggling, Haru leaned forward and plucked a kiss off of Ann's lips.

_____________

Ann, like Ryuji, would sleep for some time to come. Haru could work with that. She'd leave the younger woman the same sign she'd left Ryuji.

Refreshing her gloss, Haru left Ann a sparkly impression on her cheek, before slipping out of the media room. Pulling out her phone, Haru shot a quick message to the help, asking that they not disturb Ann, and to please put aside a couple of strawberry and cream crepes for the girl. She'd appreciate them.

Haru preferred to speak to the staff in person when she could. But this morning they were quite busy preparing breakfast for the collective Phantom Thieves.

Not that anyone in her employ actually knew that, instead thinking of the group as her friends. Like the rest of the world since last Christmas eve, her staff was near-perfectly split over whether or not the Phantom Thieves had even existed.

A few of the staff suspected the amorous nature of the group's relationship. But Haru would neither confirm nor deny, and the group took care to keep their activities out of sight.

It was advice she'd received from Ann early on, back when the blond girl had been so much more comfortable in the wondrous complexity of polyamory than Haru. She'd been dodging, and in one case befuddling, caretakers for months by that point. Trying to keep minders set by parents half a planet away from realizing how close Ann was with her friends.

Haru and Ann had discussed the matter at several points. Both had experience dealing with hired help, although in Ann's case the help was more of a glorified nanny. That did nothing to negate the conclusion Haru had reached. When the time came to move, her staff would be shaped by those who could accept the situation and keep their mouths shut.

Because in this, Haru knew she was just like Ann. She'd spent long enough in a home empty of affection. Now that she had more than she knew what to do with, Haru would wreak havoc if that's what it took. But she would not hide that affection in her own home.  
_____________

Only one person was left to find. Unfortunately he'd be the hardest target of them all.

Ren was, well, a phantom.

All of them could evade detection when they put their minds to it. But Ren was an expert even in their select company. Combine that with the many nooks and crannies in the house, not to mention legitimate bedrooms, Haru knew he'd be hard to find.

She considered what she knew of Ren. Confident to the point of cocky. Reckless. Arrogant. Compassionate. Courageous. Intelligent. Proficient. Sassy. Eloquent.

All at once, it hit her. Of course. Where else would Ren have chosen to sleep but her father's old bedroom. Especially knowing she didn't go into that room.

Ever.

He'd see it as giving her father one last tweak of the nose. She was okay with that, if she were to be honest.

She still mourned her father's loss. But she accepted that what she mourned was his lost potential. She didn't mourn the loss of the man he had been when he died.

He had become only marginally better than Sugimura. The peddler rather than the purchaser yet, at a certain level, scum was scum.

That had hurt, back when Astarte-as-Milady fired the truth point blank. So yes, Haru was okay with Ren tweaking her dead father's nose by using his bed.

Perhaps they all would before she moved. Haru let that exquisitely pleasant thought occupy her mind while she walked to her father's old room.  
_____________

Haru found Ren sprawled underneath sheets that had been changed, even though no one normally used this room. Haru knew that her staff was too meticulous to leave even these.

He'd neatly placed his wallet, phone, and the plastic cup with golf balls on the bedside table. It still threw Haru to see slightly smaller framed glasses on the table as well.

She knew he didn't actually need them. They all knew. But it gave him one more way to disappear into a crowd if needed. Shedding glasses and acquiring a hat could work wonders in a pinch.

It also reduced the amount of people who saw the similarities between him and the Leader of the Phantom Thieves. After all, who'd ever expect the leader of that notorious group to wear glasses?

She glanced around, and had to grin. Ren hadn't just used her father's bed, but had taken the time to try on, and discard, her father's very nice robe and slippers. Such things weren't Ren's style, but her father had luxuriated in them. It struck her, as it sometimes did, how different these two influential men in her life were.

One had denied and withheld affection. The other all but drowned her in it. One had imprisoned her in silks. The other helped her steal her freedom. One had earned more than most could dream of and wanted still more. The other had been stripped of everything he'd had and learned what he truly wanted.

How fitting, she decided, that she love them so differently. Her father in the distant, pained way of a love broken beyond healing. And Joker in the intimate, powerful way of a love tempered and maintained.

Haru leaned across the bed and plucked a kiss from the sleeping Joker's lips.  
_____________

"WHAT THE EFF? WHY'M I **GLITTERY**?" Ryuji's voice cut through the house half an hour later, and Haru just laughed.

**Author's Note:**

> Without knowing which character is which story, pick a location:  
> The Beach  
> Seaside Park  
> Dome Town  
> Fireworks Festival


End file.
